MOBILE, Alabama — A federal judge in Mobile last week agreed to a request by prosecutors to postpone the trial of a woman accused in a mortgage fraud case and send her for a psychiatric evaluation.

Also last week, prosecutors asked a judge to conditionally drop charges against another defendant in the case who has been accepted in a pretrial diversion program.

After conducting telephone a conference with lawyers in the case, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sonja Bivins ordered Melissa Collins Gulledge to undergo an evaluation by a local psychiatrist.

“Defense counsel voiced no opposition to the Government’s request,” she wrote. “Having considered the Government’s request, the Court finds that there is reasonable cause to believe that Defendant may be so mentally incompetent as to not be able to stand trial or not to be held responsible for her alleged criminal conduct at the time the offense was committed.”

Gulledge was on the board of directors of Tradestone Industries, a real estate investment company founded by her brother. Prosecutors contend that she and others made false loan applications to buy Gulf Shores condominiums during Baldwin County’s red-hot real estate market in 2006 and 2007.

If a judge agrees, charges against another of the so-called “straw purchasers,” Marimanda P. Tillman, will be dropped as long as she completes a probation-like term.